The present invention relates to body exercise equipment.
Many units of exercise equipment have been disclosed or put into actual use in which a cable is drawn against a resistance source by an individual exercising with the equipment. Typically, these units of equipment include a handle attached to one end of a cable with a resistance source, such as weights, opposing the pulling of the cable. Different exercises can be performed by adjusting the vertical position at which the cable leaves the equipment. That adjustability, however, provides only a limited variety of exercises.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,855 discloses exercise equipment in which the handle, grasped by the individual using the equipment, can undergo three degrees of movement as it is positioned for a selected exercise. Although such equipment provides added adjustability, whereby many more exercises are possible, the particular arrangement disclosed in this patent, which includes mounting the handle on a telescoping arm, lacks sufficient strength and stability when constructed from conventional components or becomes very expensive to manufacture when special components are used to provide greater strength and stability.
In other exercise equipment sold by Eigin Exercise Equipment Corporation of Des Plaines, Ill., the handle grasped by the user is movable to the desired position by a trolley, which moves along a curved rod track. This equipment also provides added facility for a variety of different exercises. However, the framework support structure of this exercise equipment, particularly the single arced bar used to relocate the egress point, also provides only limited strength and stability when constructed from conventional components or becomes very expensive to manufacture when special components are used to provide greater strength and stability.
Only very light resistances can be used in this design or the framing and supports will bend and damage easily. It also requires the user to perform multiple steps to adjust the equipment for a desired exercise, particularly with regard to taking up the slack created in the cable when moving the egress point from place to place along the curved rod.
Other prior art that may be mentioned are the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
None of these is all that relevant to the present invention, except one, which is of some interest, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,122. This patent uses a movable trolley that must be repositioned for each egress point for the handle from the exercise equipment required for a desired exercise position and two additional steps to release the locking mechanism for the cable take-up means before repositioning the trolley and to lock it again after it is in a new position.
Cable-cross units of equipment now currently available, provide a single step movable trolley that repositions an egress point along a straight bar, typically vertical in position, and typically have two such trolleys oriented side by side and spaced so a user can train in between them. Such designs do not optimize the interaction with basic human movement, do not provide a full 360-degree training environment in which to train, particularly limited in delivering resistance from training vectors overhead as well as from below. Also, when switching from a linear track design to a curved track, cable slack and changes in length relative to the egress point and the cable end that connects to the attachment create a serious problem. To correct this problem a counterweight system as shown in patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,122 can be used (but which calls for added steps to reposition the trolley due to the need to manually release the cable take-up means, unlock the trolley, move the trolley, relock the trolley and then relock the cable take-up means.)
The human body moves primarily in circular or rotating paths of motion as evidenced by Davinci""s Study of Human Proportions. From a biomechanical standpoint, resistance exercise units of equipment designed with resistance delivery systems oriented along an arced pathway are inherently more biomechanically optimized than those that are not, thus offering tremendous advantages to the user. Also, the invention provides units of equipment that allow for the minimum number of adjustments, ease of use and orientation of the user to change the desired exercise parameters and shorten the work out time, the ability to preset or easily reset the attachments. The sequence of various exercises, are intuitively understood, safer to use, provide a greater range of resistance, service a wider range of users and a wider range of needs with the capability of providing an infinite number of resistance training possibilities and protocols, is handicapped and wheelchair accessible, provides a simple method to record their work and progress in three-dimensional space, is aesthetically pleasing and unique in appearance and provides a 360 degree workout environment.
It is an object of this invention to provide a line of advanced pulley system exercise units of equipment which provide the user all the benefits of free weight lifting yet are safer, more versatile and easier to use, are distinct in their product styling and design, can easily be customized to meet the demands of a wide variety of users with a wide variety of needs and provide a means whereby a user can perform more specific exercises on fewer units of equipment.
It is an object of this invention as well to provide more specifically tailored units of equipment using fewer parts.
It is another object of this invention to provide units of equipment that can also work in conjunction with a wide variety of attachments, with uniquely designed multipurpose benches and versatile, multipurpose chairs to greatly expand the variety of options they provide for the user and to appeal to the widest possible range of users.
It is also an object of this invention to allow for only one adjustment to be made, the selection of the desired resistance, in order to exercise any part of the body (excluding, of course, the changing of an attachment).
It is yet another object of this invention to provide means to position two or more fixed egress pulley means positioned along a variety of single or dual walls or framed structure, or single or dual tracks, rails, tubes or cylinders or other support means of a variety of shapes other than just a straight line (yet could include a variety of straight line and curved combinations) relative to a user pulling on a handle connected to a connecting means attached to a resistance means and having one or more cable take-up means which enable the user to perform an infinite variety of exercises for muscular development or rehabilitation on more ergonomically efficient, optimally comfortable, easier to use and understand, resistance exercise devices.
It is an object of this invention to provide safer and more stable and user-friendly resistance units of equipment, which are more economically feasible to manufacture by maximizing economies of scale due to more standardization of parts that can be used to create a wider variety of units of equipment and which exercise both the prime movers as well as the stabilizer muscles in the human body in an infinitely positionable and unrestrained way.
It is a further object of this invention to provide designs that also allow for the development of Total Body units which use a standard set of parts which can be used to create a whole line of exercise units of equipment utilizing various combinations and mixes of egress points along one or two of the various shaped paths as they are positioned relative to the user in unilateral and bilateral formations which themselves can be fixed or move relative to themselves to create varying points of egress for the user to grab onto attachments connected to the connector means allowing for the creation of a line of units of equipment which enables the user to train specific body parts in a wider variety of ways.
It is a still further object of this invention to allow the user a means to record which training vector in three-dimensional space they are exercising in so they can record and repeat their movement patterns each time they use the units of equipment.
These objects and others that will become apparent from the following specification are achieved by exercise equipment including a housing having a curved path, multiple pairs of pulleys positioned along the curved path, each pair of pulleys having passed between them a cable, far from the proximal end of which is the distal end of the cable being attached to a source of resistance and the proximal ends being located outside the curved path and attached to a means that enables the user to exert force against the resistance. The resistance may be variable. The resistance may be a set of weights, for example. A set of counterweights may be used to act as a cable-take-up means when different egress points along the curved track are utilized.
An economy model of the exercise equipment includes a framed housing having a curved track defining a prescribed curved path, a pair of pulleys on a movable trolley repositionable along the curved path, and having passed between them a cable, the proximal end of which is located outside the curved track and attached to a means that enables the user to exert force against the resistance, to which the distal end of the cable is attached. The resistance may be variable. The resistance may be a set of weights. A set of counterweights may be used to act as a cable-take-up means when different egress points along the curved track are utilized.
Means for allowing the user to exercise force against a resistance may be a handle, strap, belt, rope, bar or any other means that are useful in exercising.
The exercise equipment is arranged for engagement by one arm or one leg or one body part at a time. If both arms or both legs or one of each or more than one body part are to engage the equipment simultaneously, two points of force application (i.e., universal connectors), suitably located, are provided and the overall exercise equipment has two parts. The two parts can be separate units, placed side-by-side, parallel or at selected relative angles, or they can be integrated into a unitary construction. Although in the following description of the present invention reference is made to engagement by and exercise of the arms and legs, by the use of suitable attachments to the universal connectors, other body parts such as the torso, neck, hips, shoulders, chest and back also can be engaged and exercised.
In contrast to the prior art, multiple fixed egress points of the present invention provide a multitude of egress points for handles. It is merely necessary to grasp a handle at the desired egress pointxe2x80x94no repositioning is necessary.
The movable trolley equipment of the present invention allows for one step to reposition a movable trolley along an arced track and provides a sturdy, less expensive frame and a single track for the trolley to move along to relocate the egress point from which to train with both light and heavy resistances. The invention can comprise a mechanically or electronically actuated brake using levers, cables, pins, pads, or other braking means that is activated when the release mechanism for repositioning the trolley is used. When the mechanism to reposition the trolley is activated, the brake is released on the cable take-up means. When the trolley is repositioned and locked in place the brake is simultaneously locked. The brake cable and cable take-up mechanism are oriented in such a way that when the trolley is moved along the arced path, the cable length remains constant with regards to the egress point and the cable end that connects to the attachment. This brake and cable take-up system can be applied in both a fixed end and closed loop cable system. It can also be used when the take-up means is between the point of egress and the resistance means, or past the end of the resistance means as shown in patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,122.
There may be additional exercise equipment positioned near the exercise equipment of the invention for either style, i.e., the fixed point system or the movable trolley system. Two units of equipment are capable of being used simultaneously by a single user exercising two limbs or other parts of his or her body simultaneously or by two users simultaneously. The two units of equipment may be placed side-by-side parallel or at selected relative angles. They may be integrated into a unitary construction and may utilize a multifunctional chair or bench, which can be positioned to cooperatively function with the exercise equipment. The curved tracts may also be affixed to frames, which allow each to rotate vertically around to create a 360-degree totally repositionable workout environment about the user while he/she is positioned between the curved tracts as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,122.